Gag Reflex

Gagging can occur really easily in dentistry, with impressions, xrays and water / fingers!

Do you find dentistry difficult because of a gagging reflex?
Do you hate messy impressions and xrays?

Can i share a top tip with you? There is something very simple and very powerful you can do yourself to stop the gag reflex when you are having some dentistry done. just before the procedure is about to begin, lift up one leg a few inches off the chair. keep it raised and if it starts to ache a bit, swap legs. Avoid the temptation to rest your leg on the other leg and cheat!

The mechanics behind this is really simple. By lifting your leg your focus totally shifts away from the mouth on the leg. We have found in practice that over 90% of gag reflexes disappear when you do this.

We can make life even easier by putting either salt on tongue, or a powerful topical gel which numbs the back of your mouth, making things a lot more comfortable.

If your gag reflex is severe and you are in that 10%, we have Happy Air available which is proven to seriously knock out gag reflexes and will also make you feel much better about your treatment.

For more information, just drop me an email.

If you gag during treatment, obviously you cant lift your leg up for half an hour or so, this is where Happy Air or Relative Analgesia comes into its own. A few minutes of Happy Air and we can rid you of the gag reflex for 20-30 minutes.

iTero

We can always eliminate impressions for you entirely if you want. I use iTero dental laser scanning to take pictures of the teeth and build models on a 3D printer, rather than use rubbery sloppy impression goo and cast the model in Plaster of Paris. Difficult to gag with a small camera in your mouth.